[citation needed] The text of the petition, addressed to the "citizens of Russia", contains a sharply negative assessment of Vladimir Putin's activity.

It says in part: We state that the sociopolitical construction that is killing Russia and has now bound the citizens of our country has one architect, one custodian, and one guardian.

We declare that no essential reforms can be carried out in Russia today as long as Putin controls real power in the country.

The petition calls the previous president Dmitry Medvedev "an obedient placeholder", "a modern Simeon Bekbulatovich".

The authors appeal to law enforcement and security agency officers not to stand against their nation and not to carry out criminal orders.

The actual author of the text was not named, but according to early sources[5][6][7] it was a group headed by Garry Kasparov.

My main function was to gather comments and get approvals of the text from all the signatories — from Vladimir Bukovsky to Yury Mukhin.

[8]At the time of the publication, the petition was signed by 34 prominent public figures of various ideological orientations: activists Yelena Bonner, Vladimir Bukovsky and Lev Ponomarev, politicians Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov, popular conspiracy theorist Yury Mukhin, economist Andrey Illarionov, writers Zakhar Prilepin and Victor Shenderovich, musician Mikhail Borzykin (Televizor), political thinker Geydar Dzhemal and others.

[9][10] Opposition politicians Mikhail Kasyanov,[11] Vladimir Ryzhkov[6] and Eduard Limonov[12] have supported the campaign, even though they have not signed the petition.

On 10 March 2010 the petition appeared in the online magazine Ezhednevnyi Zhurnal[13] and the collecting of signatures started.

[17] Then it was mentioned by several other liberal mass media, including the radio station Echo Moskvy and the news website Newsru.com.

This was used by ill-wishers, who left a large number of fake signatures, calling themselves Obama, Timoshenko, Medvedev, Putin etc.

However, the organisers expressed a belief that no counteraction would stop people and the appeal would be signed by millions of citizens.

In his blog entry of 16 March the politician attributed this delay to the fact that he and Novodvorskaya were not allowed to join the Solidarity movement.

He expressed a hope that it was a misunderstanding and asked Garry Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov to settle the issue with the Solidarity membership.

[22] Starting on 17 March, members of the United Civil Front held pickets in Moscow, some of them in dormitory districts, to collect signatures for the petition.

At the May Day rally in Moscow Garry Kasparov declared that the campaign would go on until Putin leaves and Russia becomes free.

According to the head of the UCF Moscow branch, Lolita Tsaria, policemen tried to impede the distribution of materials.

[51] In the beginning of October activists of UCF, Solidarity and other opposition organisations created the Committee of Five Demands.

[56] 18–19 November in front of the White House in Moscow a series of single pickets was held by activists of Solidarity and the Committee of Five Demands.

[61][62] Among the speakers were Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov, Ilya Yashin, Andrei Piontkovsky, Vladimir Ryzhkov, Sergei Udaltsov, leader of the Khimki forest defence movement Yevgenia Chirikova[63] and other prominent public figures.

The Moscow authorities approved the application of the Committee of Five Demands to hold a rally "I'm for Russia without Putin!"

[74] On 11 March, the first anniversary of the start of the campaign, the organizers sent a new message to all signatories informing about the opening of the direct electronic democracy network and urging them to join.

[75] On 26 March 2011 the Solidarity movement held an event to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the election of Vladimir Putin as president of the country.

[76] The creation of an online community (social network) of signatories was suggested by the organisers early in the campaign – in their messages in March and April 2010.

[78] Well-known opposition politicians, such as Garry Kasparov, Boris Nemtsov and Ilya Yashin, began to publish records from their blogs.

[79] The campaign was covered in a number of Russian and foreign media, including On 11 March Radio Liberty published an English translation of the entire text of the petition.

[4] On 15 March 2010 the magazine NewTimes.ru published a statistical analysis of signatories according to their places of residence and professions, concluding that the petition was signed mostly by the middle class.

A relatively large number of signatures had been provided by residents of Siberian and Urals federal districts, where the recession-hit industries concentrated.

[105] Russian writer and opinion journalist Nikolai Starikov organized a vote on the Internet with a plea that Putin must stay.